Today, we were working on the roof of the house. My mother-in-law owns my late sister's dog "Hank". He is a Lab / Rotty mix. He is a nice dog, but none of my dogs really care for him. He comes over to my house and makes about a 1 acre circle around the house, peeing on absolutely everything. It is like he is marking his territory, except this is NOT his territory. My shelty, Bandit has a habit of going up to Hank and nipping at him, as if to say this is my place. Hank usually turns his head and ignores Bandit and we hollar at him to leave Hank alone. My border-collie mix, Boomer acts real tough by barking and his hair stands on end, but he wont go close to Hank. My other dog, Buddy pretty much doesn't pay any attention to Hank unless the other 2 dogs are there, and Buddy seems to defend our other 2 dogs against Hank. Well, there were a few people at my house and my dogs were jumping on them, so we put the dogs in the house. Why they were indoors, Hank was outside and the neighbor boy was tossing a piece of wood to him. My dogs were in the windows barking furiously. After the company left, I decided to let my dogs back outside. I opened the door and Bandit went right after Hank like he always does, but this time Hank was very close to the house and Boomer, Bandit, Buddy and my nephews dog Benny were right behind them. Well, Bandit jumped at Hank and then Boomer snapped at him also. Then it got bad. Hank grabbed ahold of Bandit and was shaking him, Boomer went at Hank, so he let go of Bandit and grabbed Boomer. Everything was happening so fast. I was screaming at the top of my lungs, grabbing at Bandit, then trying to grab Boomer. I was screaming at Hank and my dogs at the same time. My husband threw a plastic cup with Iced tea in it from on top of the roof, unfortunately it hit me and not the dogs. Then somehow Buddy got involved. Then finally, my dad and my brother-in-law made it down off of the roof to try and get Hank to go home and keep my dogs from going at him anymore. I do not blame Hank for the fight. He was only trying to defend himself against all of my dogs. I would have been scared too, if there were 4 dogs coming at me. When it was all over, Boomer got 3 scrapes on his snout. The one is a 1/2 in. strip where all the hair is gone. Bandit is limping because he has a hole in the skin on his leg. It is a puncture wound. Buddy doesn't seem to have any marks on him. My question is "how do I control these situations?" My dogs do not leave my property, but Hank does come onto my property. I don't mind that he comes over, because he was my sister's dog before she was killed in an auto accident 2 years ago. When I chase him home, it's almost as though I am chasing my sister away. (I know that probably sounds silly) I just wish that they could all get along. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Staci
**The picture below is of Boomer and Hank a year or two ago, they actually used to play together.
P.S. Even though Hank is a nice dog, just a few weeks ago he bit a chi puppy that my nephew got and killed it. My nephew lives with my mother-in-law and Hank (I think) felt that the puppy was invading his territory, because they were feeding him treats in front of Hank when he bit him. I don't know the details of the dog fight, I just know that Hank killed the tiny puppy.
